Each year the Centre for Asian Studies (CAS) is inviting scholars from different academic fields to present their research on specific aspects of East Asia. This tradition is continuing, and this year we are happy to invite everyone interested to Korea, Japan and China to the 11th international CAS conference called “Civil Society in East Asian Countries: Contributions to Democracy, Peace and Sustainable Development”. It will be held on October 26-27 in VMU Small Hall (S. Daukanto g. 28) and will attract participants from Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Germany, Switzerland, Finland and other countries. The event is free and open to all.

This year’s focus on civil society can provide to participant many insights how non-governmental organizations function in different political environments and shape the development of their own countries and the whole region. Existing research show that civil society has plenty of regional variations influenced by historical experiences, cultural background and shared values. East Asia is an especially interesting case in this sense because of rapid societal and economic changes and globalization processes in the past few decades. The relatively recent boom in the number of non-governmental organizations that happened in East Asian countries and spread of activism and volunteering culture create a rich ground for scholars to test existing theories and create new hypotheses. We hope that the conference will contribute to encouraging and strengthening of research activities in this field.

For more information about presentations refer to conference program. The organizers appreciate financial help provided by the Japan Foundation and Taipei Mission in the Republic of Latvia.

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